Around a year ago, Robert Downey Jr. and his wife and producing partner Susan Downey sat down with Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige for a chat.

It wasn’t unusual for Downey and Feige to be talking. After all, the two have kept in touch following Downey’s departure from the Marvel Cinematic Universe after Avengers: Endgame. But the conversation soon took a multiverse-shattering left turn, when Feige suggested Downey could return to the MCU, even though his character, Tony Stark, was dead.

“He said, ‘It just keeps occurring to me, if you were to come back …’” Downey said in the latest episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s Awards Chatter podcast. “Susan was like, ‘Wait, wait. Come back as what?’”

Downey and Feige went on to talk about issues that needed to be resolved, should the actor return.

“How can we not go backwards? How can we not disappoint expectations? How can we continue to beat expectations?” Downey recalled. Added the actor: “And he brought up Victor Von Doom. I looked into this character. Later on, he goes, ‘Let’s get Victor Von Doom right.”

Downey already wanted to meet with Disney CEO Bob Iger about contributing to the company’s parks and location-based entertainment, and soon he found himself at the mogul’s home.

Iger already seemed to know about the Doctor Doom idea, and quickly told Downey, “I like it,” before arranging for the actor and Feige to visit Disney’s Imagineering Campus to see what was in the works there.

“You want to talk about two guys that are not easy to have their minds blown, let alone at the same time,” said Downey. “What is going on there, right now, is so beyond my expectations of what was possible.”

In the years since leaving the MCU, Downey has remained close to Avengers directors Joe and Anthony Russo, as well as Iron Man director Jon Favreau. At San Diego Comic-Con in July, Feige confirmed that the Russo brothers were back to direct a pair of movies: Avengers: Doomsday for 2026 and Avengers: Secret Wars for 2027.

A group of men dressed as Doom swarmed the stage, and one stepped forward. He took off his mask, and it was Downey. It was one of the biggest reveals in Comic-Con history.

“New mask. Same task,” Downey told the crowd. “Boy, I tell you, I like playing complicated characters.”

Downey, who is in the Emmys race for playing five roles in the HBO/Park Chan-wook limited series The Sympathizer, shared much more in a career-spanning interview with Awards Chatter host Scott Feinberg, which is below: